Simple guitar tab questions

From:

Stroller

Subject:

Simple guitar tab questions

Date:

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:20:43 +0100

Hi there,
I'm new to making music and have no previous education in this matter. I
thought to use Lilypond to type up the handwritten tab that my guitar teacher
has given me.
I have a couple of questions, and I hope you will forgive me if they're stupid
ones.
Firstly, I think the following snippet prints fine. If not then it's my lack of
understanding musical notation that's failing, not Lilypond.
\version "2.14.1"
\new TabStaff {
\repeat percent 4 { a,\5 a,\5 c\5 d\5 }
\repeat percent 2 { d\4 d\4 f\4 g\4 }
\repeat percent 2 { a,\5 a,\5 c\5 d\5 }
\repeat percent 2 { e,\6 e,\6 g,\6 a,\6 }
\repeat percent 2 { a,\5 a,\5 c\5 d\5 }
}
Could I have expressed this better any other way? Is this a good way to write
tab with Lilypond?
Secondly, how do I express sharp or flat notes in Lilypond, please?
\version "2.14.1"
\new TabStaff \relative c' {
e\1 f\1 g\1 a\1 b\1 c\1 d\1 e\1
}
\new TabStaff \relative c' {
b\2 c\2 d\2 e\2 f\2 g\2 a\2 b\2
}
In this above snippet, I am unable to express holding the 1st string at the
2nd, 4th, 6th, 9th or 11th frets, or holding the 2nd string at the 2nd, 4th,
7th, 9th or 11th frets.
I suspect the answer to this is related to my ignorance of music. Perhaps "that
wouldn't be in tune, n00b" or "those notes would be out of key".
So more specifically, this does not show what I want:
\version "2.14.1"
\new TabStaff \relative c' {
<g\3 d\4> <a\3 f\4> <c\3 g\4> <g\3 d\4> | <a\3 f\4> <d\3 a\4> <c\3 g\4>
}
How do I show that the second note should played with both fingers on the 3rd
fret, instead of (in the snipped above) one of them on the second? Third string
at third fret is marked as A♯B♭ on a fingerboard chart I have here.
How do I show the second-to-last note played at the 6th fret, instead of at the
7th, please?
I'm kinda thinking that Lilypond is not really geared toward outputting this
kind of notation and that Lilypond is "overkill" for what I want to do. But I'm
not sure what else I would use. I don't want to use Tux Guitar because I use
Mac OS X on the desktop and because I like writing stuff in a text editor. I
also want to add stuff that can be achieved in Lilypond with `\markup {
26/07/2011 - practiced for one hour, not sure which finger to use }`.
Ideally, I'd like to be able to tell Lilypond something like s3f3 for string 3
at the 3rd fret. I thought it might be possible to define LaTeX type macros for
this, but searching Google for "guitar tab
site:lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/" I find there was some
discussion in early 2009 of guitar tab features, so I guess it's not as easy as
that. I assume that easy guitar tab development didn't go any further, since I
can't find reference to it in the manual?
Many thanks in advance for any pointers,
Stroller.